Multi-story structures are common today. When an emergency occurs in a multi-story structure, the people on the second, third or higher floors may find it difficult to reach the normal exits. When normal exits are unavailable, alternate emergency exits must be found. One such alternate emergency exit is a window. However, exiting through a window two or more stories above the ground may be dangerous.
A ladder may be used to exit from second story or higher windows, but storing a noncollapsible ladder by every window is impractical. Thus, foldable escape ladders were developed to avoid the storage problem. One example is the combination window and escape ladder disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,841. While these known systems have been generally adequate for their intended purpose, they have not been entirely satisfactory in all respects. For example, the structural features of the window specific to the emergency escape feature are often complex and expensive, and may interfere with the extent to which the window can be used in a normal manner when there is no emergency. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a foldable escape ladder that can be located easily and quickly in an emergency, that does not interfere with normal use of an associated window, and that is relatively simple and inexpensive.